


Fire Escape

by The_Writer_Of_Many_Things



Series: Widojest Week 2019 [6]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Daring rescue, F/M, Fire and Ice, day 6 of widojest week, literal interpretation of the plot, peril then comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-06-27 22:49:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19799356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Writer_Of_Many_Things/pseuds/The_Writer_Of_Many_Things
Summary: Caleb tests his limits as he braves fire to rescue Jester.





	Fire Escape

Caleb was transfixed by the sight of fire. It was the source of his pain, but it was also his greatest strength. He had saved his new family dozens of time with fire spells, that was true, yet every person killed was just another body added to his pile of regrets. In the months since he had known the Mighty Nein, his mind had slowly become calloused to the deaths he had caused through fire. Still he found himself sometimes coming to in the midst of battle, surrounded by scorched bodies and flames.

This time it was worse.

“Caleb! Caleb, snap out of it!”

As his mind came back from the brink, he found himself facing a wall of fire. His cheek stung from where his goblin friend had slapped him in an attempt to pull him back to reality. 

“Caleb, we have to get out of here! The mine is going to collapse!” Nott’s hand was pulling on his jacket frantically.

Glancing around, the wizard saw his party standing behind him. Beau’s face was bloody and bruised, Fjord was nursing a bloody spot on his torso, and Caduceus’s hair was singed. Nott seemed stressed but no worse for the ware and Jester-

Caleb’s head whipped around, searching for a sea of blue among the orange. “Nott, what has happened to Jester??”

A cough answered him from across the tunnel. “Caleb! I’m over here!” Jester’s voice was small, her lungs filled with smoke. He could barely see her, hunched low to the ground to preserve oxygen.

“Jester, stay right there!” Caleb did his best to keep panic from leaking into his voice. This was all his fault; if he had control of his trauma his powers wouldn’t have run rampant. Now Jester was trapped and she could die, all because of him. He couldn’t allow that to happen.

“What are you doing, Caleb? Be careful!” Nott yelled as he marched headlong into the fire. He could feel the flames lick at his clothes, his skin, his hair, but none of it mattered. Jester was past the flames, Jester was in danger, Jester could die…

As he charged forward he thought about all the times she had made him laugh, broken through his shell of trauma and self-pity. He had always valued her but it dawned on him now that he had never really told her how much he valued her. The determination to see her again, to show her how grateful he was propelled him to jump through the last wall of fire, landing on the side where Jester was trapped.

The tiefling wasn’t just sitting on the ground. Her right leg was trapped underneath a piece of the mineshaft. Her freckles had mixed with soot and dirt. Somewhere in the battle she had been hit on the head; her hair was matted with blood and her left eye was closed. She looked far worse than Caleb had ever seen her and his heart sank knowing he had helped put her in this position.

“Jester, I am so sorry,” he said moving over to her. He quickly evaluated the rock pinning Jester to the ground. I am going to lift this on the count of drei, and you can pull your leg out. Ready?” She nodded, and he steadied himself with his hands firmly planted around the rock. “Eins, zwei, drei!”

Caleb was not known for his strength, but he summoned every ounce of willpower in his body and lifted the rock just enough to allow Jester to remove her leg. He immediately dropped the rock and began to help her up.

“Sehr gut. Can you walk?”

Jester tried to put pressure on her leg and almost collapsed within a second. Caleb caught her, one hand around her waist. He began to reevaluate where they were, trying to find the quickest back to the rest of the Nein waiting for them on the other side.

“Jester, we need to get out of here right now, but I need your help.”

Jester nodded solemnly, trying not to wince.“What do you need me to do?”

“You are an ice tiefling ya? I will take you through but I need you to use your special ability to help shield us, or the two of us will be burned. Do you understand?”

She nodded, leaning further into Caleb. His heart sank at the sight of her so beaten up but he forced himself to swallow the feelings in the spirit of survival. He allowed her to sink into him, pulling her arm around his shoulders and lifting as much of her weight with his arm as he could. Then with a nod he took off running through the fire.

It had been a long time since he had lifted the weight of another humanoid. He remembered faintly the days when he had danced with Astrid, picking her up and spinning her around. Those days were long gone, the muscle only starting to return. It was determination that propelled him now, through the fire with Jester at his side-determination and fear that he would lose the person that he only now dared to admit to himself he cared for most in the world.

As he ran forward, he felt the immense heat rise up around them and glanced at Jester. She was clearly in immense pain, battered and bruised while trying to dodge through fire and the bodies of their enemies. He could see her attempting to concentrate but the flames weren’t making it easy.

Just as Caleb began to think he might need to formulate another plan, Jester yelled out a string of infernal syllables unlike anything Caleb had heard before. Shards of ice began to form around her, immediately melting from the heat of the flame and soaking their clothes. It wasn’t enough to stop the fire, but it was enough of a window to save them.

“Almost there, Blueberry.” Another round of ice shards burst forth and Caleb saw that last wall of flame flicker. With a renewed burst of strength, he picked Jester up and ran the last few feet through the fire, barely dodging a support beam that fell right where they had been standing moments before.

“Come on Caleb, we have to leave!” Nott pointed up at the roof of the mineshaft that was beginning to fall apart around them. Pieces of wood and rock were tumbling to the ground and if they didn’t start running right now the Mighty Nein would be no more.

Beau had moved over to where the two of them were leaning against the wall. “I got Jess, just come on.” She picked the weak Jester up, looping her arms around shoulder and hiking her legs around her waist like a satchel. Her strength and speed allowed her to shoot ahead even while carrying another person. 

With seconds to spare the last of the group made it out of the mine shaft, falling to the grass in relief as the tunnel collapsed right behind them. Beau set Jester down before throwing herself face down in the grass. No one moved, no one spoke; whether it was out of relief, adrenaline or fear Caleb wasn’t sure. He said a prayer of thanks to the Traveler, the Wild Mother, the Storm Lord, the Moon Weaver and every other deity he could think of.

Splayed out on the grass, he felt a hand reach over to his. He tilted his head to see Jester, curled up with her eyes closed from exhaustion. She seemed barely conscious but he heard in the faintest whisper “Thank you, Caleb.”

He softly squeezed her hand, whispering back to her “I would never let anything happen to you Jester.” His voice was so soft, weighted with choked back tears and leftover panic he was worried she didn’t hear him, but after a moment he felt a squeeze back and her hand remained in his as she drifted off to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading, especially if you've read my other Widojest prompts! This was such a hard prompt to work with but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Major thanks to 3fling.tumblr.com as always for not only being so supportive but again for helping with the plot.


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